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` UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

KATE J. COLLINS, OF NEV YORK, LI. Y.

CELLULOID OR ANALOGOUS BINDING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 405,874, dated June 25, 1889. Application filed May 12, 1888. Serial No. 273,686. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, KATE .I. COLLINs,a citizen of the United States, residing at the city, county, and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Celluloid or Analogous Bindings, tbc.; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

The object of my invention is to enable sheets of celluloid and similar frangible inaterial having like properties to be used in book-binding, the manufacture of card-cases, and for other similar purposes. Previous to my invention it has been attempted to apply said sheets to such purposes by providing holes at the corners thereof and tying through said holes the sheets to the other portions of the book-covers or other devices; but such work is insecure, presents an unfinished appearance, and is crude and unsatisfactory in many ways.

Prior to my said invention it had been the prevailing` impression among those using celluloid sheets that from the peculiar character of the material it was too refractory to be sewed, and hence all attempts to utilize sheets thereof for the purposes hereinbefore indicated were in other directions. I ascertained, however, by repeated experiments that when the edge of a sheet of suitably-thin celluloid has placed upon its surface a layer or thickness of leather or like cushioning material a seam may be readily sewed through such leather or the like, and also through the margin of the celluloid sheet, so that when the leather or like material is so provided as to itself serve a useful purpose when thus connected to the edges of the celluloid sheet, the celluloid sheet and the leather or like material together may be used for many useful purposes--such, for example, as book-covers, card-cases, &c., which possess all the beauty and utility due to the celluloid without any of the defects previously necessarily incident to the use of said substance in such articles. In other words, I am enabled by means of my said invention to produce such articles with characteristics of beauty, durability, and utility heretofore unknown therein.

My invention comprises the novel combinations of parts hereinafter described in this specification, and duly set forth in the claims.

Figure l is a side view illustrating my invent-ion as applied in book-binding, and Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken in the line x x of Fig. l. Figs. 3 and 4 are correspondin g views illustrating my said invention as applied in a card-case or like device.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, A is one iiap of a book-cover, of which the back is shown at a. B is a sheet of celluloid of any suitable thickness-as, for example, say the one thirty-second of an inch. Upon both sides of the peripheralsurface or edge of this sheet is placed a layer of leather or of other material having similar properties. This leather or material is best applied to the opposite surfaces, as described, by folding it over the edge of the celluloid sheet, as shown at t, eX- cept at the edge adjacent to the back a, at which place one (preferably the outer) layer may be formed by the lapping edge of the leather or material of the said back. A row of stitching c is then made through the two layers of leather or like material and through the marginal portion of the celluloid sheet confined between the said layers and the layers of leather or like material, the latter being connected by sewing or otherwise to the material of the back a. The whole is held together, and both flaps of the book-covers being made in the manner described a handsome and durable binding is provided to the book, pamphlet, or volume, as the case may be, one having all the beauty and advantages due to the ivory-like surfaces presented by the celluloid, combined with strength and permanence even greater than that of ordinary board binding, and with an elasticity not heretofore known in book-binding and the like.

IVhen it is desired that the inner surface of the flaps of the book-cover or other article shall be of paper, I, in order to avoid discoloring the celluloid by the use of paste, place upon the said inner surface of the celluloid a sheet of paper, with the edges of the paper substantially coincident with the circumference of the sheet and extending under the contiguous layer of leather or the like previous to the formation or sewing of the seam, so that said seam when formed confines the paper in place, so that it may present a sur IOO face to which, when desired, a iy-leaf of the volume may be pasted. When no such paper surface is desired to the flap, the paper may be dispensed with in the flap, and the inner surface of the latter be that presented by the uncovered inner surface of the celluloid sheet.

In Figs. 3 and 4t a card-case or like device is formed of two `celluloid sheets B B,held together at their side edges and one of their end edges by the seam passed through the same and through the two layers of leather or like material placed at opposite sides of the surfaces or peripheral portions adjacent Yto said edges.

By celluloidf7 as used herein,I mean materials having the frangibility and peculiar properties which in general characterize the substance comm ercially known as celluloid.

What I claim as my invention isl. The combination of a sheet of celluloid, a sheet of leather or like material, and a sewed seam uniting the two sheets, substantially as herein set forth.

2. The combination, with a sheet of celluloid, of layers of leather or like material placed on oppositey sides of its edges, and a sewed seam passing through both of said layers and the celluloid between them, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

3. The combination of a sheet of paper with the sheet of celluloid, the layers of leather or like material placed on opposite sides of the edge of the celluloid sheet, and a sewed seam passing through said layers, paper, and cellu loid sheet, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

4. The combination, with the back B of a book or volume, of sheets of celluloid, layers of leather or like material placed on opposite sides of the edges of said celluloid sheets and connected ywith the back B, and a sewed seam passing through bothof the said layers and the celluloid between them, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

5. 'Ihe combination, with the back B, o f sheets of celluloid, layers of leather or like material placed on opposite sides of the edges of said celluloid sheets, paper placed upon the inner surfaces of said celluloid sheets and extended under the adjacent layer of leather or like material, and sewed seams passing through said layers, paper, and celluloid sheet,

substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

KATE J. COLLINS.

Witnesses: l

CHARLES A. HERBERT, A. C. AUBERY. 

